The past ten years have witnessed China's growth into the world's biggest exporter. But, growing strength has come with growing conflict. In our latest report on China's entry to the WTO 10 years ago, we take a look at how Chinese companies are adapting to an evolving trade environment, and some of the challenges it has brought.

This is the first Chinese company to win an IPR trade case overseas. Ever since the company entered the US market in 2004, they have faced charges from rivals over the patents of its electrical insulation technology, but were able to prevail in the end.

Chen Wusheng, president of Tongling Technoloby Group said:"The result of our six-year long law suit protecting our IPR is that we now deeply understand the importance of intellectual property in world trade activity. We've learned that innovation is the ultimate way to survive. Only through continuous innovation, and protection of intellectual property rights, can you achieve a leading position over the competition."

Intellectual property has become a new barrier in world trade. IPR cases are extremely costly - which drives many young companies out of the market. However, after ten years in the WTO, Chinese exporters are starting to learn how to use the rules to protect themselves.

Rising trade protectionism and frustration over subsidies have spelled trouble for China ever since its joining of the WTO. This has been especially troublesome as the global economy slows and countries scramble to boost exports. And as China's economy evolves, new technologies in fields like clean energy generation have become the subject of heated battle.

In early November, the U.S. government launched an investigation into imports of Chinese-made solar panels after U.S. solar companies called for anti-dumping and anti-subsidy duties.

Jia Qiang, president of Firefly Lighting Company Ltd. said: "If they make a tax on that, then consumers will buy less, and they will have more carbon emission. So I think sometimes those governments are quite contradictory to themselves. On one side they claimed that global warming is coming, everyone should take responsibility. On the other side, sometimes their policies are against this direction."

Liu Baocheng, professor of University of International Business & Economics said: "I think we should really congratulate to ourselves, by being sued, by being conflicted. because now they take you as rivalry, not a subordinate. They pay attention to you, they feel the pain by your competition. For Chinese companies, they need still a long learning curve to overcome."

According to a white paper on China's foreign trade, the Country's trade surplus largely comes from the processing industry. With the transfer of large numbers of labour-intensive processing and assembling sectors to China from Japan, Singapore and other nations, these nations' surpluses with the United States and Europe were also transferred to China. Encouraging home-grown innovation while upgrading industries is likely the best route for China to develop its economy and promote balanced trade.